Nationalist Party members of the Parliamentary Group who spoke to this newsroom have expressed their disappointment that they have been kept in the dark on the strategy the PN is adopting in the local council election campaign and the direction the party is taking.

Speaking to The Malta Independent on Sunday, they said that they have been kept out of the loop and have no idea what is expected of them in the course of the campaign, which was launched last Sunday during a general conference addressed by leader Simon Busuttil.

The campaign, they said, is the mastermind of general secretary Chris Said, backed by the deputy leader for party affairs Beppe Fenech Adami, who brought in his experience from his time at Elcom, the party’s election commission. Both have shouldered the responsibility to take all major decisions in the preparation stage, and have given little information on how the campaign will proceed.

A voice recording leaked to ONE NEWS supposedly uncovering a meeting held by Dr Said speaking to party insiders about the campaign gives little, if any, indication of the type of campaign the PN will be holding in the coming weeks. Our sources claim that for some reason, contrary to what happened during the MEP campaign last year, the details of the month-long activities are privy to a small group of people.

It seems that the PN is still disjointed within its ranks. This can also be verified from the presence – or lack of it – during parliamentary group meetings. Sources within the party say that MPs such as Albert Fenech, Stephen Spiteri and Michael Gonzi (all of whom are doctors) hardly ever attend, while deputy leader for parliamentary affairs Mario de Marco is also not a very regular attendee, and when he does turn up he’s usually quite late too.

The PN sources however agreed that the list of candidates being presented for the local council elections shows an effort to present new faces and to portray a fresh image of the party. This however has caused diehards who have been with the party in its troubled days to be left out. Some have even resorted to contesting on an independent ticket or even crossed to Labour.

The incidents regarding Charles Micallef St John, who withdrew his candidacy after a lack of agreement with Chris Said, and the fact that a party stalwart like Stephen Mercieca will now be contesting as an independent candidate after being struck off the list by the general secretary, are an indication of the internal difficulties the party is still facing.

The Nationalist Party is giving great importance to the 11 April local council elections to see what inroads, if any, it has made in “catching up” with Labour.

Local council elections cannot be compared with a general election or one for the European Parliament, mostly because the turnout in local council elections is much lower. But after losing the general election with 36,000 votes in 2013 and getting a worse score in the EP elections last year, the PN is looking to see if it has gained any ground on the Labour Party.

Local elections usually go against the party in government and in favour of the party in Opposition, but this may not be the case when considering the political clout Labour still commands two years after its massive victory.

If the PN doesn’t get a positive result, the sources said, the party would have wasted two years.

People in the PN are questioning why the PN campaign has not gone in full swing as that of the Labour Party. “All we had was the extraordinary general council, the press conference with the candidates and some visits by the leader, while the Labour Party has held mass activities almost every day since the campaign was launched last Sunday”. 

On the other hand sources who are working close to Simon Busuttil claim that the road ahead is long and tough and the PN leader wants to show a different way in doing politics. “It is very clear that the PN is the underdog in this election and people need to realise that honesty is the best policy,” they claim.